Vivi's Ultimate Boardgame

Didi was sitting on her couch watching her favourite interdimensional reality tv show when suddenly...

BOOM!!!

The entire apartment shook and plaster sprinkled down from the ceiling. She stood up quickly, too quickly, and fell right back down again. "What happened?" She wondered aloud. She stood up again and hurried downstairs. Vivi said she was working late...

Didi threw open the door to their workshop and found Vivi lying on the ground. Her clothes had been vapourized, and indeed everything mundane in the room had been as well. The magically reinforced walls were coated in dust, the remnants of the tools and furniture which had once occupied the room. Besides Vivi the only thing that remained in the room was a small box in the very centre.

"Vivi...are you ok?" Didi asked slowly. Physically she was fine, but even with their high magic resistance it was still possible for them to experience ill effects from a magical explosion of that magnitude.

Vivi blinked and slowly sat up, "Am I ok?" She asked quietly. She walked over to the small box and placed her hand gently on top, "Oh yes. I'm wonderful. It worked!"

"Uh...you made a box? Congrats I guess."

Vivi shook her head, "Not a box. A board game."

"Oh, another one? Do we really need to make another?"

"This isn't just a board game. This is...MY ULTIMATE BOARDGAME!" Vivi suddenly yelled excitedly.

Didi sighed, "Uh. Ok. Should we take you to a doctor? Not that a human doctor would understand...perhaps a psychiatrist?"

Vivi ignored Didi, "I've taken all my favourite games and shoved them into one fantastic board game. Not just my own ideas, but I've stolen...er...uh...taken inspiration from the very best stories out there. With this I'll finally reach 1 million likes!"

"...Right...I'll be right back...let me just find that psychiatrist real quick..."

"Now the real question...do I sell it or just hide it somewhere to be found..." Didi could hear Vivi talking to herself as she went to search the yellow pages. After a few minutes she realized the yellow pages were from 2003 and just about as useful as Vivi herself. She tossed them aside and used the internet to look for a psychiatrist specializing in delusion magical beings. After sending a few probing emails to the first 10 she found in her area she went back to check on Vivi.

"So do you need..." Didi blinked. Vivi was gone, and so was the boardgame. She shrugged, "That bitch better not have broken my tv..." She went back upstairs and promptly forgot all about Vivi and her boardgame.

Nathan stood up and stretched. It had been a short flight, but on such a small plane that any length of time would have been uncomfortable. At least he was sitting at the front of the plane in what amounted to first class, he'd be off in no time. He grabbed his carry on and made his way out of the plane and down the corridor to arrivals.

As he descended the escalator towards the baggage carousel he saw Dylan and Oliver standing there waiting for him. They were in a heated conversation and hadn't noticed him yet. Once he was back on solid ground he rush over to them and threw his arms around them, "Hey guys, what's up?"

Oliver sighed, "Nathan, thank God. Please, please tell Dylan that astrology is bullshit."

"Sure, Dylan, it's bullshit." Nathan said with a grin.

"Ok, fine, yeah," Dylan said quickly, "But it's FUN bullshit!"

"Please. You told me last week you didn't give that guy a second date because he was a Leo."

Dylan put her hands on her hips, "That was a joke! I didn't give him a second date because he was a misogynistic prick. You should have heard what he said to me."

Oliver put his hands up, "Alright. Fine. You win."

Dylan smirked, "Ya, unforgiveable right? Now if he'd been a Capricorn..."

Nathan couldn't help but laugh at Oliver's expression. Dylan was always able to get him going, ever since they met back in University. "Come on you two, we don't want the girls to beat us there, do we?"

"Ah, well fine. Let's get going. Now my car might not be as fancy as yours, but at least it drives, right Dylan?" Oliver said, nudging Dylan in the ribs.

"My car drives!" Dylan said defensively, "Usually..." She added quietly.

The trio made their way out to the parking lot. Oliver led them to a sleek looking SUV and opened the back so Nathan could put his bag in. Nathan clicked his tongue, "You're kidding. When did you buy a Porsche?"

Oliver laughed, "Picked it up last week. Jealous?"

Truthfully, Nathan was. He liked the look people gave him when he said he drove a Maserati, but he'd bought it used and despite the relatively low kilometers it was starting to eat away at his budget with expensive repairs. He shrugged, "Nah man. I barely drive anyway, my car mostly collects dust in the garage."

"Ha, just like Dylan's!" He teased, earning a solid punch from her.

Nathan couldn't believe it had been years since they'd all gotten together. Sure they still had their group chat and they talked on the phone frequently, but that wasn't the same. Still it was like they'd spent no time apart at all, he was thrown back to their days in University, like no time had passed at all. Their vacation had just started and he was already having so much fun. Toronto was so close to Ottawa, why didn't he visit more often?

He smiled to himself as they got into the vehicle. It was time to hit the road.

Lina was a little tired. Part of her wanted to just close her eyes and let the rocking of the car lull her to sleep, but the rest of her was too excited to catch up with her friends to slow down enough for that. Right now Rachel and Eliza were talking rapidly, telling her all about their lives together. Well Rachel was talking, and talking, and talking. Eliza added her two cents here and there, but Rachel dominated the conversation. That wasn't unusual, it had been that way since she'd met Rachel more than a decade ago. Back then Rachel had decided that she and Lina were going to be friends, and like most people Lina had found it impossible to say no.

Lina wondered if that's how it had gone with Rachel and Eliza too. Did Rachel one day decide that Eliza was going to be her girlfriend and Eliza had just gone along with it? Compared to the brash, outgoing Rachel, Eliza was a little mousey. She was kind and soft spoken, a real people pleaser. Lina could kind of see her going along with Rachel just so she wouldn't upset her. Although Lina supposed that 8 years together kind of disproved that theory. They really did seem like they were just as in love now as they were back in school.

Lina was a little jealous she supposed. Rachel liked to tease her that being bisexual meant Lina had so twice as many options but in Lina's experience it just meant getting rejected twice as much. She couldn't believe the number of times she'd been rejected because of her orientation. It made no sense to her. Being bisexual didn't mean she found everyone attractive or somehow had less control than straight guys or gay women, but still she'd suffered rejection for those nonsense reasons. Of course there were other reasons too, Lina thought absentmindedly clutching her chest, in fact Rachel herself had rejected Lina all those years ago, before she'd even met Eliza. Rachel's reason? Lina could still picture Rachel saying it all these years later, "Sorry, I like big breasts." It was true that Lina's A-cups couldn't complete with Eliza's prodigious mounds, but it wasn't like Rachel was much going on either.

"Lina? Still with us?" Rachel said.

Lina realized she'd been lost in her own thoughts. "Uh...sorry. Just a big jetlagged."

"Oh of course. Well I was just saying we're almost there. I know this probably hardly counts as a mountain to someone from Vancouver, but welcome to Mont-Tremblant!"

Lina looked out the window and saw the small hill rising up in front of them, "Well..." She didn't want to offend Rachel. Tremblant had been her idea after all. But yeah. Compared to the Rockies the view in front of her was...disappointing to say the least, "Well we didn't come here for a mountain. I'm just excited to spend some time with you guys!"

"Oh look, I'm pretty sure that's Oliver's new car, guess they beat us."

Lina saw the SUV parked in front of the cottage. Rachel pulled in beside it. Lina shook her head, trying to dispel feelings of jealousy. It was bad enough being jealous of Rachel and Eliza's relationship without adding finances into the mix. Lina hadn't taken environmental science to get rich after all, but of course she did wish she got paid a little better. She'd have to commiserate with Dylan later, at least Lina wasn't the only one struggling. If Rachel hadn't paid for Lina's flight she never would have been able to make it.

"Well, shall we go inside?" Eliza suggested.

Lina nodded, "Yes! It's party time!" Lina went inside, found her bed, and promptly fell asleep.

When Lina woke it was dark. She stumbled out of her room and found her friends all sitting in the living room, talking and drinking. When Oliver noticed her he shouted and soon she found herself sitting on the couch, beer in hand, "Now that Lina's awake, what do you guys think about playing that game?"

"Huh, what game?" Lina asked.

"We found some dusty old board game here. I've never heard of it before. It's called Vivi's Rift." Dylan answered.

Lina shrugged, "Sure. Why not?"

With that Oliver opened the box and unleashed the magic within...